An Open Letter to the Mountain Biking Community

Recently there has been a deal of social media comment about the effectiveness (or lack of) of WAMBA and of WestCycle. Much of this comment appears to be born from ignorance and we hope that this open letter will help the community understand WAMBA’s role and focus:

WAMBA is recognised by the State Government as being the state sporting association for mountain biking and our constitution says that our mission is “to work collaboratively with key stakeholders to identify, develop and sustain mountain bike experiences in Western Australia”.

The Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries currently provides funding to WAMBA to help us realise our objectives and to implement the State Mountain Biking Strategy. That funding supports WestCycle’s Mountain Bike Development Manager – Peta Demidenko - whose sole purpose is support mountain-biking in WA. It also allows WestCycle to:

lobby government on behalf of the riding community;

support a junior high-performance development program for mountain biking;

to support clubs; and

promote mountain biking

The achievements of WAMBA since this arrangement was implemented have been, frankly, outstanding and a credit to the tireless efforts of the volunteers who make up the committee and to the people within WestCycle who put in a massive effort on our behalf.

MTBing & Cycle Touring AAS Released for Public Consultation

The draft standard for Mountain Biking & Cycle Touring for the Australian Adventure Activity Standards (Australian AAS) has just been released for public comment. All members of the outdoors community can have their say about this activity standard by visiting yoursay.australianaas.org.au/mt-bike-cycle-touring/

Adventure Activity Standards (AAS) are industry best practice guidelines used to manage risk and safety across a wide range of outdoor adventure activities. They are designed to be used by skilled outdoor leaders who are responsible for participants in these activities.

The draft standard is available to download or readable online via the website. Feedback submissions can be lodged via the websites submission forms. These include general impressions, as well the opportunity to provide detailed and specific feedback on any piece of content or section.

Feedback submissions will close on the 9.00am (AEDT) 9th October 2017.

South Shore (Lane Poole Reserve, Dwellingup)

As many of you will be aware, the 2016 Yarloop Bushfire caused extensive damage to the South Shore facility in the Lane Poole reserve and as a result of the near total loss of the many structures that made up South Shore, a sum or money has been agreed between the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA / formerly the Department of Parks and Wildlife) and their insurance assessors.

WAMBA were approached by DBCA to comment on their plan to take the South Shore insurance proceeds and use them to decommission the South Shore facility and use any remaining funds to support the development of Trails 1 & 2 (black and blue DH trails) in the Murray Valley Precinct. This is in support of the Murray Valley Concept Plan (MVCP), a project that has been running for approximately 4-years and is focused on the development of a trail facility in the Murray Valley region.

WA Mountain Bikers Selected to Contest the Worlds in Cairns

They have been selected for the 2017 UCI MTB Australia Team to contest the World Championships in Cairns QLD on 5th - 10th September!

This is a fantastic achievement - they are the only WA riders selected as part of the 64 strong team who will compete against the world's best.

Sam Hill is a five time world Down Hill champion and is currently leading the World Enduro Series. Sam finished a close second in Canada on the weekend extending his points lead heading into the last round in Finale’ Italy.

This will be Reece’s fourth world championship going into it ranked as the second Australian U23. Reece still has one more year in the U23 category and is coming off a strong European season where he was consistently the best placed Australian U23.

It will be Sarah’s first world championships as an U19 (Junior). Sarah just returned from a training camp in Cairns with all the other juniors. She has returned to WA very excited as she was super competitive with the other Aussie girls on the camp.